“Fahrenheit 5765 – Dealing With Our World in Chaos”
Yom Kippur 5765/2004
Rabbi Jeremy Barras

Fahrenheit 5765 – Dealing With Our World in Chaos

In his novel “The Plague,” Albert Camus, the 20th century French philosopher, creates a metaphor for the German occupation of France during World War II. His story describes a terrible plague that strikes a town, terrorizing its victims and bringing death to multitudes of the inhabitants. The Plague is carried by infected rats, who spread the plague’s poison among the human population. In the face of death, each person is forced into making a decision that will ultimately define his character. Some people resort to profiteering. Others find consolation in senseless hedonism. Still others make efforts to heal the sick. Eventually though, “The Plague” ends and the survivors rejoice.

But the town doctor, watching the townspeople celebrate, understands what the masses did not. He knows that this particular Plague never dies. It lies dormant for years and bide its time. And eventually the rats that carry and transmit “The Plague” will rise up again and terrorize the city once more.
On this New Year of 5765 according to the Jewish calendar, we stand with our fellow Jews and alongside all who love freedom and seek justice, as we face the reemergence of the plague that seeks to destroy us. In this bizarre post 9-11 world, with all its fears and apprehensions, the world’s climate has acquired a feel that many of us have never quite known. As we stand on the threshold of a New Year the temperature seems to have reached the world’s age, an alarming Fahrenheit 5765.

In the days after September 11th, Thomas Friedman was asked by a journalist to explain the impact that day had on Americans. He responded, “Imagine how Egyptians would feel if three suicide bombers rammed airplanes into the Pyramids, with thousands of people inside. The World Trade Center were our Pyramids…and someone has destroyed them.” In the wake of that destruction, it seems our lives have been turned upside down. When we watch the nightly news we hear the drumbeat of world’s woes and travails. Unending conflict and bombing still rages in Israel, and even as Israel has found a way to finally protect herself in the form of a separation barrier, the rest of the world condemns her. We are still embroiled in Iraq with no real hope in sight for a just conclusion. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and his band of murderers remain hidden in a murky, impenetrable world that we do not seem to understand. Terrorist threats continue to haunt us at home, even here in Charlotte. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in many different parts of the world; in France, in Argentina, in the former Soviet Union, in the Arab press, and on and on. And for all the problems we face, we are not sure if there are genuine leaders who have the intellectual capacity and moral certitude to deal with these complex and intricate situations.

Assuredly this new epoch is nothing knew for the Jewish people. Living through periods of spiritual chaos and physical upheaval, while threatening and disheartening, is a recurrent theme in the saga of Jewish survival. After the Destruction of the Second Holy Temple by the Romans 2000 years ago, the Rabbinic Sages devised a complex, yet workable system of worship to replace the now defunct sacrificial cult, so that the Jewish people could continue their relationship with their God despite the loss of the Temple. When years of lost Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel created a sense of distance between the Jewish people and Almighty, the mystics created a system of observance and understanding that offered Jews a new approach towards communicating with the Divine. And when the tide of anti-Semitism in the world reached a fevered pitch no longer tolerable in the shtetls, villages, ghettoes, and cities of Europe, the Jews embarked on a monumental campaign to reclaim their original homeland. Time and time again, the survival of the Jewish people was threatened in every age; but the Hamans, the Romans, the Cossacks, the Nazis have never been able to destroy us. As Jews, we have so often been confronted with chaotic and bleak situations. Yet, we have had the ability to react spiritually and intellectually and militarily, and we have survived. We are an eternal people.

Isaiah knew quite well the secret to emerging from the depths and arising again to grandeur. During the darkness of the Babylonian captivity, he prophesied that the wondrous light of God’s redemptive presence would one day soon bring forth a restoration of Zion, a rebirth of the Jewish commonwealth, and an end to chaos of the Diaspora; “For the mountains may move and the hills be shaken, But my loyalty shall never move from you, Nor My covenant of friendship be shaken.” But Isaiah understood what preserved our people from generation to generation. He knew that Divine redemption did not arrive unconditionally. The Jewish people had to uphold their eternal covenant with God that required them to serve as light unto the nations of the world.

We have woken up in a time that we never thought possible. We witnessed an attack on our own soil more devastating than Pearl Harbor. We see anti-Semitism walking openly and undisturbed in the streets of Europe just as it did sixty years ago. We see our country’s military treading hopelessly in the quicksand of countries around the globe. And again we see that peace in Israel seems as far away as it ever has. And still, we Jews must reconcile with the notion that we are responsible for our commitment to the covenant, a commitment to Tikkun Olam, to repairing the world.

In the Talmud we are taught that when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he unleashed into the world the evil inclination. Subsequently the equilibrium of the world was thrown off kilter and became in need of repair. Today as all people are endowed with a good and evil inclination, we all have the capacity to either sustain the world’s equilibrium through our good deeds, and we all have the capacity to upset the equilibrium by sinning and neglecting Torah. The ever present need to restore that equilibrium that God desires is what we mean when we say Tikkun Olam, the repairing of the world.

Several years ago when I was in rabbinical school, as bombs were exploding in the streets of Jerusalem on a seemingly daily basis, one of my professors living in Israel that semester wrote back to the student body, “The way we fight terror is with Torah.” At first I though this was a silly line better suited for some Messianic sect than a Reform student body. But after September 11th, I reconsidered my professor’s words. I thought to myself that Tikkun Olam does not necessarily mean that we must physically involve ourselves in the solution of every major world problem. Rather, it means that we are responsible for reasserting what is right and what is wrong, what is moral and what is immoral, what is ethical and what is unethical, what is good and what is evil. Furthermore, we must remember that we are commanded v’ahavta l’reiechah c’mocha – You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We must be involved on a communal basis with social action and justice, and on an individual basis with acts of charity and helping those less fortunate than ourselves. That is what my professor meant when he said, “The way we fight terror is with Torah.” Our military arsenal is defined not by bombs and bullets, but rather by its moral clarity and willingness to participate in Tikkun Olam.

Let me illustrate the way three very different people have applied the concept of Tikkun Olam to their lives. In the late 1980’s, a CPA in San Francisco by the name of Daniel Cummings had a revelation. While sitting in his office, he decided that he would send the following not home with the tax-packet he sent to his clients; “If your documented charitable donation of money or securities are less than 1% of your adjusted gross income, I will add $100 to your tax preparation fee and donate this surcharge to a charitable organization. You still have one month in which to increase your donations to avoid this surcharge.” Mr. Cummings assuredly conveyed the value of charity to his clients. Certainly he realized that this act could have cost him some serious business. Yet, even at risk to his own livelihood, he was willing to share a positive value with others in position to help the greater society. This is how we use Tikkun Olam to try to right the inequities in the world.

No matter how awesome and overbearing the problems of the world may seem, each one of us must nevertheless make a decision how we will deal with the chaos that confronts us. The second example comes from a recent interview with Madonna, who is so often mocked in the Jewish community for her affinity and commitment to Kabbalah. However, after listening to her speak for a little while, it occurred to me that she really does get it. One comment that really struck me was when she said, “I used to contribute to the chaos of the world, but now I am trying to bring order to the world.” That, in essence, is the goal of Kabbalah – and if we all grasped that concept as Madonna has, our lives would be much more fruitful and meaningful. After all her shenanigans and rebellious behavior that originally made her famous, Madonna has realized that when we help bring order to the world, we bring order to our own lives.

The third example is a story you may remember. It involves Bruce Seldon, who at the age of twenty-one, had already spent almost half of his life in prison. Most of the crimes he committed took place in his hometown of Atlantic City. In 1985 he was sentenced to ten years in jail. While he was incarcerated, the prison guards found Bruce to be a difficult prisoner.

But somewhere along the way, Seldon stopped being difficult and turned his life around. He started to think about his mother who raised him… “she’ll never cry for me again,” Seldon remembered thinking. “I found it hard to believe this was me. I said I won’t do this anymore,” he said to himself.

Bruce Seldon stopped being a difficult prisoner, earned his high school diploma and was paroled after four years. By April 1995 he was the WBA boxing champion and ready to make his title count for something.
He returned to Atlantic City and made amends with the owner of the liquor store he robbed; he visited Mountanview Prison to speak with inmates and has spoken at almost every school in Atlantic City. For Bruce, simply being released from prison was not enough to eradicate the chaos that had dominated his life. It was only when he began to make a difference in the lives of others at risk of making the same mistakes he had that he felt that order had truly returned to his life.

On this Day of Atonement, as we look around us at the world in which we live, those of us who gaze astutely are worried and deeply concerned. Our country faces real challenges that require capable leadership. Israel is continuously threatened by terrorism, economic hardships, and an unsympathetic world. Jews in Europe and other parts of the world fear walking in the streets with kippot on their heads or chai necklaces on their necks for fear of attack. And we are left to ask ourselves, where can we possibly go from here? How do we respond to the plagues of our time?

We know that the defeat of chaos and terror will not be easy. There are many serious problems that face us in the coming days that will force us to look inwardly at the people we want to be, and the world we want to live in. On this Yom Kippur day we affirm our faith in a moral God, in whose light we shall overcome the uncertainty, fear, and anxiety that pervades our world. As we look forward to this new year of 5765, we ask God to inscribe us for a life free from chaos, dedicated to Tikkun Olam and focused on deriving true meaning from our lives.

V’tov beinechah l’varech et amo Yisrael v’et kol ha’amim, b’chol et uv’chol sha’ah b’shlomechah.

May Your children unite to do your will: to establish peace and justice throughout the world, so that the nations are drawn together by the bond of friendship, and Your law of truth hold sway over our lives.

Kein Yehi Ratzon – May it be God’s will.
Amen